In the pre-electronic environment the particular title of a journal issue was permanently connected with that issue (except perhaps in those libraries that discarded the covers of journal issues during the binding process). In the electronic environment, the physical bond between particular issues and particular titles no longer exists. The title of an electronic journal may appear on a "home page" for that journal and nowhere else; this means that when the title on that "home page" changes, it is quite possible that there will be no trace of any previous titles that may have appeared on that home page. A particular issue, and the articles that it contains, will no longer be permanently associated with a particular title. While successive entry preserves the identity of each "title" it also presents a misleading picture of sequential and discrete entities, implying that a particular set of issues is permanently associated with each title. Single entry, although it may present a more accurate picture of the what often appears to be a single entity, can make identification of earlier "titles" quite difficult. What is happening in the electronic environment is that although an earlier "title" may cease to exist as a discrete entity (except in an archived form); its contents continue to exist as a part of the current "title."

In our approach to cataloging electronic journals, let us acknowledge that the earlier "titles" of an electronic journal are parts of the later "titles" of that journal, and treat them as such. One can think of each successive "title" of an electronic journal as incorporating the previous "title," like boxes within boxes. In a sense, the earlier "titles" can be regarded as analytical entries to the later "titles," and we can use an approach that is similar to that used for analytical entries. We can call this new approach "Incorporating Entry."

Let us look at an example of how "incorporating entry" could be implemented, using two "titles": BMMR and The Medieval Review. In May of 1997, the electronic journal previously known as BMMR changed its title to The Medieval Review, and all the issues that previously bore the title BMMR were reformatted with the later title.

Current practice: Successive Entry
[Note: these are edited excerpts from actual records; thanks to John Riemer for identifying them]

022    1070-3616
245 00 BMMR $h [computer file]
362 0  93.8.1-97.05.02.
580    The publication changed title to: Medieval review, and
reformatted all old issues to build a complete archive under the
new title.
785 10 $t Medieval review $x 1096-746X

022    1096-746X
245 04 The medieval review $h [computer file]
362 0  97.05.03-
580    All issues previously published under the former title
BMMR [Bryn Mawr medieval review], have been reformatted with the
new title: The medieval review.
780 10 $t BMMR $x 1070-3616

In this example, using successive entry, the records are linked with USMARC 780 and 785 fields and a cataloger has created notes (USMARC 580) to describe the relationship between the two "titles." The statement of extent (USMARC 362) for the new "title" begins with the issue that was the first to have its original publication under the new title.

Proposed Practice: Incorporating Entry

022    1070-3616
245 00 BMMR $h [computer file]
362 0  93.8.1-97.05.02.
580    Incorporated into: Medieval review.
7?? 10 $t Medieval review $x 1096-746X


022    1096-746X
245 04 The medieval review $h [computer file]
362 0  93.8.1-
580    Incorporates: BMMR.
7?? 10 $t BMMR $g Aug. 1993-May 1997 $x 1070-3616
730 02 BMMR.

In this example, the USMARC tags for the links are not specifically designated. It might be desirable to define new fields (e.g., 788, 789) that are specific to the "Incorporated into/ Incorporates" relationship, as well as a new value for the publication status of an "incorporated" journal. However, the "incorporating entry" approach could be implemented without such changes to the USMARC format. For instance, we might use fields 773 (Host item entry) and 774 (Component item entry) along with the newly defined $I (e.g., 773 $i Incorporates $t BMMR).

Advantages of the Incorporating Entry Approach

• Maintains the identity of earlier "titles," which is important for:
  
            Archived copies
            ISSN identity (important, for example, for "hooks to holdings")
            Citations and A&I services
            "True" analytical entries (e.g., a special issue of a journal) linked to earlier "titles"
  
  
• Permits the consolidation on one record of various "titles" that a user of the catalog might consider to comprise a single entity, while at the same time avoiding the unwieldy-ness of traditional Single Entry (Earliest or Latest entry) cataloging by consigning the details that apply to earlier "titles" to the records for those "titles." The record for any given "title" would include just that information specific to the "title" at the time of cataloging. Information that had appeared with an earlier "title" but that was no longer present in the current "title" (e.g., previous publishers, sponsoring bodies, variant titles) would appear on the record for the earlier "title," but not on the record for the current "title."
  
  
• Works well in a cooperative environment, especially one in which different agencies have different capabilities for editing existing records and different information regarding the relationships of "titles." Two of the major objections to the Single Entry approach have been (1) when a title changes, only a few agencies have the ability to edit an existing record; and (2) records that should not exist are created, as an agency may not recognize that what appears to be a new title is really a change from an old title. With the Incorporating Entry approach, any cataloging agency could create a record for a new title, and appropriate links could be added then or later. In a sense, Incorporating Entry makes it possible to have both Successive and Single Entry records coexist compatibly in a shared catalog.
  
  
• Permits flexibility on the part of individual cataloging agencies. An agency could choose to have in its own catalog just the record for the most current "title": or it could choose to have the record for the current "title" and some (but not all) of the earlier "titles." An agency could even choose, if it wished, to keep the current record only and dispense with the linking fields, using just the analytical added entries in a record, as below:

          022    1096-746X
          245 04 The medieval review $h [computer file]
          362 0  93.8.1-
          580    Incorporates: BMMR.
          730 02 BMMR.

     022    xxxx-xxxx
     245 04 The Michigan Medieval Review $h computer file
     362 1  93.8.1-
     580    Incorporates: Medieval review; BMMR.
     7?? 10 $t BMMR $g Aug. 1993-May 1997 $x 1070-3616
     7?? 10 $t Medieval review $g {dates} $x 1096-746X

     022    xxxx-xxxx
     245 04 The Michigan Medieval Review $h computer file
     362 1  93.8.1-
     580    Incorporates: Medieval review; BMMR.
     730 02 Medieval review.
     730 02 BMMR. 

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